The Making a Difference Awards celebrate the impact that staff, students, alumni and external partners from the University of Manchester have on the social well-being of our communities and wider society. They’re also a great chance to share best practice around social responsibility and encourage more people to get involved.

The awards are a brilliant way to shine a light on a wide range of issues our community and the world are facing, and to recognise the people tackling them through all kinds of projects. This year, we covered everything from using data to help local councils better understand climate challenges, to creating sustainable roads with graphene-based concrete, promoting LGBTQ+ projects in schools, and developing new audio compositions using the sounds of the forest.

When it came to post-production, the hexagon elements from the branding were a key starting point for our creative approach. Both the intros and outros used the purple hexagons as a central focus, while the middle sections of the films used a similar style of transition to move between interview angles and b-roll footage.

Another important part of the final edit was the semi-parallax effect used in the backgrounds. These were made using multiple layers of campus photographs, with a layer of dust particles over the top to create a sense of depth and visual separation.